Two new videos from Chinese companies make it clear: it’ll soon be no use trying to run from robots. Rapid upgrades in speed and agility mean robot dogs can now sprint at near-Olympic pace, and humanoids are running smoothly over tough terrain. Let’s start with the humanoid – Unitree’s G1 Bionic. We’ve written quite a bit about this diminutive android in the last year or two, largely because it’s incredibly cheap, the base model starting at a remarkable US$16,000. The G1 stands 132 cm (4 ft 4 inches) tall, weighs 35 kg (77 lb), perceives the world through LiDAR, depth cameras and microphone arrays, and has looked very athletic since launch. Its 23 degrees of joint freedom and torquey 90 Nm (66 lb-ft) knee motors allowing it to jump, dance, spin and contort itself into a suitcase-sized pretzel for carrying and storage. In a new video released last week, the G1 Bionic stakes its claim for “the smoothest walking and humanoid running in the world.” Indeed, there’s a bit of swagger in the G1’s hips now as it walks down a public street, leaving onlookers agape. But most impressive is the way it can now run up, and down, or sideways along steep inclines, while handling uneven surfaces with apparent ease.

Full report : Humanoid and quadruped robots are getting a lot faster.